Chittenango teachers agree to defer raises

View full sizeJohn Berry / The-Post-StandardElizabeth Carpenter, a science teacher at Chittenango H.S., worked with students from several of her classes last year.

Chittenango, NY – The teacher’s union in the Chittenango school district agreed to make concessions in the 2012-13 school year in order to save teaching positions.

The Chittenango Teacher’s Association bargaining unit members were slated to receive a 3 percent raise in the 2012-13 school year. The union voted 138-11 Monday to approve deferring the 3 percent raise over the next three years and extending the current contract through June 30, 2015.

The members will receive a 1 percent raise in the 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 school year. By deferring the pay raise, the district will save $220,000 next year. The savings will allow the district to keep on 4.3 teaching positions.

Those position cuts would have forced the district to make cuts to programs, said Superintendent Michael Schiedo.

“They would have been very painful,” he said.

The district was facing a $971,111 budget gap in next year’s $35,900,000 budget. To weather the gap the district has reduced expenses by $760,000. Not all of the teaching position cuts were saved by the union’s concession. The district will still need to cut 7.8 teaching positions to save the district $529,000.

Schiedo said those teaching positions were mostly due to declining enrollment. Next year the district will have 169 teaching positions.

Schiedo credits the union president, Andy Voigt, for helping to save the district money. Voigt proposed the concession to the Board of Education.

“I think it shows great support for the community and the students,” he said. “It shows that the employees are being part of the solution.”